I think that the word Mr Khan is looking for, but couldn’t quite bring himself to say, was ‘murdered’. I really don’t buy the excuses that some are making for Sadiq Khan that he used the word ‘passed away’ because as an elected representative he has to be very careful about sub judice etc. Yes of course in his position he has to be careful about not prejudicing a trial, but the facts of the matter were out there in the public domain for several hours. We knew it was a stabbing attack even though we did not know many of the details.
A man was stabbed and murdered. It would not have prejudiced any trial or harmed the defendant’s defence to acknowledge that this was a murder.
‘Passed away’ is the wrong choice of words here. ‘Passed away’ is what you use when someone has died following a long illness or of old age, not when it’s a murder. Whilst I accept that Khan’s comment needs to be seen in the context of an earlier comment about the attack, the term ‘passed away’ still looks a bit ‘off’ to me.
If Khan thinks that the phrase ‘passed away’ is suitable for use following a murder then it raises a question. Does that mean that all the dozens of youngsters, mostly Black but not always, who have died from violence on his watch as mayor and as London’s Police and Crime Commissioner, have passed away mysteriously or naturally or have they been murdered?
Many of the phrases have been “off” IMO.
Sir David Amess was not “killed” (that can be accidental), he did not “pass away/on” (one might hope at peace and asleep), he did not just “die” (can be by natural causes); even saying (accurately-as-far-as-it-goes) he was stabbed is downplaying events (Stephen Timms survived his stabbing by a – female-Islamic terrorist / jihadist), Amess was MURDERED in cold blood by a Jihadist.
Yet such is the self-censorship around Islam that few/no commentators can bring themselves to say “murder” and “Islamist/Jihadist” (never mind Islamic) in the same sentence because (as is endlessly parroted “Islam is THE religion of peace” and love and tolerance, etc.)
So let’s put it in a nutshell: Sir David Amess was murdered in a cold-blooded stabbing attack by an Islamic terrorist.
Of course it was “an attack on democracy” – Islam states the only legitimate government a Caliphate.
It was on a Friday – Islam “holy” day wherein the Jihadist passions are stirred by many an Imam.
It was in a Church – the better to show “my god is greater than your god” by killing an innocent person in a space sacred to Kaffirs.
Muslims regularly desecrate the places of worship of others; murdering Priests, parishoners and Temple members, smashing statues and icons, smearing faeces over and urinating on sacred items and altars, stealing holy vessels, setting fires etc. with no regard to others; BUT OH-THE-HORROR if a piece of bacon is found near a mosque!
Islam is psychopathic in nature and consequently so are many Muslims and the more closely the individual hews to its teaching the more a personal psychopathy is likely to manifest itself.
This crime is everything to do with Islam yet nobody in authority seems to be saying that.